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Lhyst (H plus 7 Days)
My eyes still felt strange to me. I'd been using them to see for more than a day. But I still stumbled here and there.
It was like learning to walk again.
Standing at the edge of Fontana, I watched the Monsters begin their assault. Seeing them for the first time had been odd, but not frightening. Each of them towered over me, their bodies proportions all wrong. They looked more robotic than human. I didn't know why they referred to themselves as monsters, but the word worked for the moment.
I stood on top of the ridge that overlooked Fontana. Charlie had explained I couldn't go with them against the thing under the city. I didn't disagree. I watched the city I had been hiding in. Me in my pressure suit, with Red.
@Rousseau: I wonder what the Enemy will do if this works.
"Who knows." I retorted. "As far as I know, no one's ever taken a city back from them. Not without nukes."
@Rousseau: These monsters... I see many advantages they have over normal soldiers. I think they were designed. Whoever it was, it had to be by something not human. No human would design others to look so different. It crosses the psychological barrier for human taste too much.
"You really think I want to talk about that stuff with you?"
@Rousseau: You're curious too aren't you?
I shrugged. He was right.
"Yeah... Well... TBH, IDK." I felt Rousseau connect to Charlie's mission dreamspace. Soon she'd be giving her orders and start this operation. "Why would a machine like you design giants, Rousseau? Giants with weird bodies. I don't see how that's helpful against the Enemy."
It felt strange to think I could hold conversations at length with my own BrainSys. A piece of wetware lodged in my head. But I'd gotten used to being blind pretty quick. Adapting to having another voice in my head was getting easier and easier.
@Rousseau: They need that size. Their unique abilities require energy and computing power normal human bodies couldn't contain. At their size, organic reactors and computers could be incorporated into their bodies easily. Their designer chose their size to facilitate their abilities.
"Whoever designed them still got their heads wrong." I said. "They're too small, and their legs are too big."
@Rousseau: Their bodies are optimally designed. Their anatomy has to compensate for their size. Normal human proportions at their scale would cause have health problems. They'd be unable to fight, if at all.
That made a sort of sense.
"Charlie should be about to start the battle." I said.
@Rousseau: You expect her to give a speech?
"I would." I paused. "Well, I guess I would if I had to be in charge of this sort of thing."
@Rousseau: You're a deserter. You did your best to try and avoid paying attention to basic training.
"And I was too scared to let them shot me."
@Rousseau: That's fair.
Then for a moment, I admired the view. You don't know how much you miss a thing until you don't have it. I hated being on this rock. Mars had been a nightmare for me, from my first transit to now. But I'd never actually looked at Mars. It had its own sort of beauty to it. Sure, the atmosphere wasn't pressurized enough for me to breathe.
Fontana looked a bit out of place to it. Like we had dug into it. Scarring Mars with bits and pieces of Earth.
"Maybe we shouldn't tried becoming Martians rather than trying to chain this place." I wondered aloud.
Rousseau didn't respond. Maybe that was his way of affirming with me. Or maybe he was trying to give me some semblance of privacy in this sort of moment. I think I could grow to like him. I still didn't get why he picked that obtuse of a name.
Charlie's voice echoed from the dreamspace she'd created. It went between me, Rousseau and all the Monsters. The audio synced. It was as though I were standing with Charlie and not outside of Fontana on the Martian rocks by myself. Well, with Rousseau, if you counted a AI trapped in wetware in your head as being "by myself."
Then Charlie spoke, a bit of hesitance in her voice. But there was some fire in there, if you paid attention to it.
"Gals. Guys. People. Ugh. Whatever we are. We're going to go in.
"This is our first real Op. The Enemy doesn't know how to react to us. Remember our goal. We're going to rip this thing out by the root. Not because we need to prove ourselves. Not because we are bloodthirsty brutes. I want to see how this they react to it. If we do this right, we'll might have a better idea of what to do next.
"Ok. That's all I got. I believe we can do this, because this is what we were made for. Let's go!"
I blinked at her words. It sounded more like a scouting expedition than actual fight. Charlie had aimed low on her list of objectives.
@Rousseau: Clever idea there. Kinda scientific. Short speech, too.
"Short and sweet, I think Ros."
@Rousseau: Ros? Really? The girl talking to herself is going to give me a cute nickname too?
"Better than the blind deserter." I said. Then I turned and waited to see how things with these Monsters went next.
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