Foreword

Once again, this is transcribed from a Tumblr post, so the formatting is not the way I would like it to be if it had been written for this format originally. There is an extended section at the beginning of the Tumblr post, which I am preserving here for the sake of completeness. Future chapters will be written and posted here, then linked to Tumblr, so there won’t be a need for this. Also, for reference, “Mechworld” was the original temporary name for Flames of Averon, and this chapter is from before the new name was assigned to the project. Additionally, this was before the characters had names, so “the pilot” is the character now named Holly Dove Melway, and “the handler” is Astrid Velkov. Those names will be used in future chapters.

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More Mechworld story after the break!

Ok, so since y’all liked my last one so much here’s a follow up on that Mechworld story. To recap, here’s the color coding, names are a work in progress rn:

The pilot, she/her

The handler, she/her

The lead training technician/supervisor, he/him?

Fair warning that I’m having a bit of a rough time deciding on how to narrate this in a way that Isn’t boring as shit so I’m kinda winging it here. Enjoy!

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It’s been… an hour I think? Longer maybe? It’s hard to tell. My head is spinning from her voice and the link, and her teasing smile is stamped on my brain. I barely process the technician walking into the room until he speaks.

“Hey, you two ready for your sim? We have it all set up for you.”

“Oh of course, let’s go pilot!”

“Yeah, I’m ready!” Yes ma’am wait. Wait hey no fair! She’s still in my head. She says she can’t read my mind, that all she sees is a little window into what I’m feeling, but I don’t know how much I believe her.

“Alright, follow me.”

We follow the technician down a brightly lit hallway lined with doors. One of them is open, and inside are a couple other technicians sitting around a table with a holoprojector in the center. Off to the side is what looks like a metal seed, a few feet taller than me. Its panels are open, revealing a seat angled such that it’s more for leaning on than sitting in. The tech walking with us gestures to a chair, and my handler (miss oh shut up!) sits down.

“Right. So, you’re going to need to connect here”

He pulls a retracted cable out from a recess on the edge of the table. She takes it and pauses

“Got it, do I just-”

“Connect that cable to the port on your wrist and sit tight while we get your pilot prepped”

She’s a little annoyed at being interrupted (how do I know that…?) but she doesn’t show it.

“Alright, easy enough”

He turns to me, already pointing to the giant seed thingy. As I turn away from my handler she gets… spiky? Is she shaking? I can’t tell what exactly I’m feeling but it’s coming from her.

“Great. Pilot, come over here”

“Am I going inside of that?” he’s already walking, so I follow

“Yep! Don’t worry it doesn’t bite. It’s just a sim pod.”

“Okay…” It’s not as much that I’m scared as nervous. What if I screw something up…?

Shhh, it’s okay. You’ll do fine. Just relax.

I jump. I swear that was her voice, but it sounds… different.

Hey, hey, calm down. Sorry for startling you. We can communicate with the link, I assumed you knew that but I should have made sure before doing it.

What? Wait, so I can just

talk to her?

There you are hun, isn’t this nice?

So you can read my mind!

Only when you let me~ and before you ask, I can feel that you’re anxious. Believe me, I am too, but we’re gonna be fine.

So that’s what that feeling was from before. Anxiety. Wait, is the technician talking to me? Oh! Gotta pay attention, right.

“…like a b-series cockpit without the rest of the mech, and the sensor data is faked by the simulation console. You’ll get used to it, trust me.”

“Right, ok, so how do I-”

“Arms on the arm rests, wrists in the rings, and sit on the seat. It’s kinda awkward, it’ll feel better once you close up the shell.”

Another pang of annoyance from my handler, this time with a protective streak to it. I lean onto the seat and slide my hands through the metal rings at the ends of the arm rests. I can feel something dangling behind my ear.

“I’m going to plug you in, look down for a second.”

I do as he asks, and I can feel him plug the cable into the thumb-sized socket on my neck. As he does, the cockpit comes to life, and the rings tighten around my wrists. They feel like bracelets.

“Great.” He turns to one of the other techs “Everything look good?”

The other tech nods and gives him a thumbs up. He turns back to me and smiles. “Perfect. Then you’re ready! You can close the cockpit once you want to kick things off.”

Close the cockpit? How do I… wait. Ok. I can feel… something. Almost like a… handle? I’m not touching it and I can’t see it but if I pull on it-

The cockpit doors slide up and slot into place in front of me. Everything is black for several seconds, and then… woah…

“Welcome to basic, pilot!” The voice is definitely the tech’s, but it sounds… distorted. Like it’s coming over a radio. “Before we do anything else, can you see?”

“I think so?” I can feel my handler nearby. She’s happy, but tense. As I look around I start to register the space I’m in. I’m standing in the grass of a sunny meadow, with a tiny tree a couple dozen yards in front of me. Or- wait… is it tiny or am I just… I look down. Oh. That would explain it.

When I look down I don’t see my body. Well, I do, but it isn’t the same body. Or a real body at all. I’m currently a fifteen foot tall metal shell, shaped like a human but with wide legs and heavy arms.

I am inside of a mech. Holy fucking shit I’m piloting a mech! A simulated one I guess, but still! My handler must feel my excitement because I can feel her voice over the link

There you go, took you a second huh? Liking the new look?

Oh my god yes are you kidding?

“Yeah, I can see!”

“Great. Can you move your arms around? And try walking a few steps too. We need to make sure your connection is stable.”

Easy enough. I try to do some stretches but as my arms touch I feel what can only be described as the tactile version of nails on a chalk board.

Note to self: Mechs can’t stretch.

I opt to just wave my arms at the tree instead. I walk towards it a few steps. It feels like I’m moving through honey, but I don’t fall or stumble or otherwise struggle to balance.

“Looking good. Normally we would have engaged the neural stabilizer before passing through the sensors to your brain, but we wanted to give you a chance to process everything normally first. We do have to get that online now, though. Fair warning, this will feel weird.”

Neural stabilizer? Isn’t that the implant that shuts off my……….

Can you hear me pilot?

…yeah…

Her voice is quieter. A bit spacey. Hopefully that’s normal and she isn’t passing out. “Should she sound so out of it?”

“Yep, that’s pretty common. She’s fine. Just don’t ask her to do any math right now.” The technician laughs. I don’t. I’m genuinely worried about her… I know this is completely routine, but I needed to make sure she was safe. So long as she is, we’re good.

Alright hun, focus on my voice. Stand up straight for me.

…okay…

I can see her mech straighten up over the holofeed. Y’know what, she’s kinda cute like this. I’m starting to get used to it, I think…

“Paint the tree red and tell her to shoot it.”

I wish the tech weren’t so pushy. He seems bored. He needs to chill out. I reach out and drag a line from the red cube in front of me, floating just above the table, to the tree. It gets highlighted in bright red.

Weapons free, pilot. Shoot red targets.

This part feels natural. We covered the target painter in pre-basic, before I was assigned a pilot. She, presumably, was taught what the colors mean: Red means kill it, yellow means it’s not friendly but you can’t kill it, blue means it’s friendly, green means it’s part of your unit. She hits the tree with a few plasma bolts while the technician watches, somewhat more interested than before.

“That’s enough.”

Stand down pilot.

She stops shooting immediately. The tree sizzles and starts to fall before snapping back into place as one of the techs resets it.

We spend a couple of hours walking around, shooting trees and testing her reflexes. The techs spawn in a couple of tanks for her to shoot at, some soldiers for her to defend during a simulated evacuation, and a few different environments for her to walk through. We’re mostly just helping her get used to the feeling of being in a mech. Once things start shooting back at her, I can feel her getting scared, and I comfort her as she goes through the exercises.

calm down pilot.
you’re doing great.
stay focused.

The techs seem impressed by the time they’re done. She’s stayed mostly calm, with my help, but I can’t shake the feeling that we’re only now getting to the most difficult part.

“Alright, time for disco. Tell her to stand by.”

“Right.” I feel sick from the anxiety. They told us how awful pilots can feel after a disconnection, even if it’s just a sim. I want her to be okay…

Pilot, get ready to disconnect.

…oh…okay…

She has the same flat, dazed tone that she’s had the entire time. I disconnect from the table and head over to the sim pod. The doors slide open, but she’s still connected, not registering the real world around her. I step forward to catch her as the tech unplugs the cable from her neck.

…ready…Oh god where’s my handler where’s-

She falls into my arms, breathing fast. I just hold her as she clings to me. I can feel how terrified she is. “Hey, hey, you’re safe, I’ve got you. You’re okay.”

“I’m okay…” I cling to her. When she says it like that I really do feel better. The ringing in my ears is quieting down and I can feel my breathing returning to normal, but I keep holding onto her.

Do you want me to help you sit down, or would you prefer to just stand like this for now?

Like this… please… ma’am…

Alright, we can do that.

The tech gives me a pained half-smile of understanding.

“First disco is always rough. They’ll get better. For you at least.”

“Not for her?” He just shrugs.

“Here, I’ll take you to the barracks, they’ve got a bed ready for you there. She should rest, or at least just lie down.”

I’m going to start walking, just walk with me hun.

Yeah…

She whimpers a bit out loud. Hopefully her speech is coming back to her, but this works. I keep my arm around her waist as we walk to our bunk bed. There’s a fold-out table attached to the lower bunk. I try to help her onto it and she lies down, tugging on my hand. I sit next to her and she rests her head in my lap.

“You did so so good hun. I’m so proud of you.”

“th…thank you miss” I look up at her. She’s smiling at me. She’s still so pretty…