Scarlet Steel

“Exa, get this thing cooled down, I’ll start removing braces.”

“Already on it.” Exa is plugged into a console. I can see her flipping switches, and I’m sure she’s doing much more that I can’t see. Spidey scrambles across the ground and onto the engine. “Switched to backup power, you’re good to start.”

The reactor is hot, even with my survival suit on. I’m not going to let that stop me.

“Give me a warning if my suit’s about to fail, I’m going to push through the heat if you don’t.”

“I’m always keeping an eye on you.”

I start removing bolts, ignoring the grinding metal behind me. Juno and Janus are building as much cover for me as possible, turning over tables and shoving machines between me and the walls.

“You want in on their conversations?” Exa asks. “They’re discussing defenses.”

“Just tell me when I’m in danger.”

“I’ll tell you when we need to get back in Hoppy.”

“Thanks.” The first brace comes free, and I toss it to the side. “How much will we have to fight?”

“Less than we can, more than we want to.”

“Isn’t that every mission?” A second brace comes free, and I toss it out of the way.

“Pretty much. You’re good to detach the pipe closest to you on your right.”

It’s a single clamp holding it in place. I quickly loosen it, and the hose pops free, flying around as it belts out hot steam. I glance over at Exa, but she doesn’t say anything. Guess it’s fine.

“Temps rapidly dropping.” She says. “Next pipe.”

Exa keeps telling me to remove parts, and I work as quickly as possible, occasionally finding time to disconnect extra parts in between her suggestions. A loud grinding fills the room, and I do my best to tune it out. The grinding stops, only to be followed by a loud clang and gunfire filling the room.

“Just keep working.” I mumble to myself. “I’m safe.” More or less at least.

Juno, Janus, and Graff sprint around the room, responding to any number of problems that I don’t have time to care about. Gunfire follows their every movement. Another pipe comes free, another brace. I don’t have time to carefully unplug everything, I just start snipping wires.

“Scarlet, ETA?” Juno interrupts me to ask.

“Working as fast as I can!” I yell back.

I loosen a pipe, try to pull it out, but only feel my hands burning in response. Whatever this material is, it must have fused from the heat.

“Fuck it.” I draw my pistol and put a few rounds into it. The first hole vents a liquid that quickly solidifies in the open air, and water from the air crystalizes across its frozen surface. A few more and I manage to sever the pipe. That’s good enough.

“Janus. We need zero g.” Exa calmly requests. If I take any more braces or supports off, the engine is likely to fall.

“Copy. Everyone get anchored.”

A few seconds later, the floor disappears out from under my feet and the barriers protecting me from everything else float upwards. My survival suit clamps down on my body. That helps with the nausea at least.

Exa unplugs herself from the console and runs over, her magnetic feet clanking loudly against the floor. The two of us remove the last few bolts and the engine floats freely in the air. I shove it towards Hoppy, and Exa guides it towards her compartment. She shoves it in, closes the compartment, and reaches out a hand to help me into my cockpit.

I bounce off the ground, reach for her, and my suit tightens around my arm. Exa roughly shoves me inside and gets me locked into my harness.

“Green! Reactor’s secure!” I yell, and gravity reappears, and I get slammed into the harness. A small amount of red liquid splatters against the floor and my console. Exa uses all her limbs to brace against the floor and walls, keeping her suspended above me.

“Copy. Janus, get us out of here.” Juno says. “Formation 3,4,2,1.”

“Displaying route.”

I grab my flight stick in my left hand, but moving my right to the accelerator is a little harder than it should be. I must have pulled something while working. I push the accelerator forward and aim towards the door. Graff has no problem getting there ahead of me and widening the entrance as much as he can. He forces his way through as I get close, and I barrel through the wall.

“Shit!” Jerking forward when I hit the wall makes pain flare in my bicep. I really screwed something up.

“You need me to take care of it?” Exa asks.

“I’m fine.” I insist.

We run through hallways in the exact opposite direction of our entrance. Hoppy takes a little fire, but Juno and Janus are keeping most of our assailants away from us.

At the end of the path we enter a mostly empty storeroom. All four of us pile inside and the door closes behind us.

“Detaching module.” Janus announces, and gravity disappears once again. “Ship docking in twenty. Weapon systems station-side are still unusable, we’re safe.”

I reach to massage my arm, but Exa grabs my wrist before I can.

“Don’t.” She says gently.

“Why not?”

“Just wait until we’re on the ship.” She practically begs. “Keep your eyes forward.”

“Alright.”

Janus keeps giving updates, but with every one I find it harder to keep track of his words. The pain in my arm flares with every heartbeat, and barely reduces between them.

“Can you get the medkit?” I look up and ask. “I pulled something.”

“When we’re on the ship.” She promises.

Gravity returns as the dropship connects, and Exa pilots Hoppy for me. She’s the first into the bays, and the second we’re hooked in, the cockpit door opens and she helps me out of my harness. Every movement brings another spike of pain.

“I think I tore something.” I say.

“Just relax.” I don’t even notice when gravity cuts out again. She just pulls me out of the cockpit, into her arms, and floats towards the ship’s control center.

The table in the center of the room is off, and she gets me positioned on top of it before gravity reappears once again. A few tables pop out of the floor and ceiling, with medical tools already spread across them.

“It’s just a tear, right?” She shouldn’t need this much stuff for it.

“Something like that.” She sticks a syringe through a port in my suit and into my arm, and the pain disappears. My entire arm goes limp, and when I try to pull it towards my face, the limb feels disconnected. I can feel it move, but in reality, it stays right where it is on the table.

Exa hits a few latches built into my suit and the sleeve disconnects. She pulls it down slightly and wraps a small device just below my shoulder. She pulls the sleeve off completely and presses a red cloth against my arm.

Wait, no, that’s not a red cloth.

“Exa? What happened?”

“You got shot.” She says simply.

“What?” I try to sit up, but she shoves me back to the table.

“Move and I’m putting you to sleep. Your suit took the worst of it, but we only heavily armor vital organs to keep weight down.”

“When? How did I not feel it?” I make the mistake of glancing at her. A pair of tweezers are digging around inside my wound. I slam my head back on the table and shut my eyes.

“Adrenaline and automated local anesthesia." She answers. “The suit applies it until you’re out of danger, and then reduces the effects so you can deal with it. If the bullet hit the bone it wouldn’t do much, but this just got lodged in the muscle.”

“Mm-hmm.” I groan a response.

“You about to throw up, Kid?” She asks.

I shake my head.

“Tell me if that changes. I’ve got anti-nausea shots.”

“Alright.” I force myself to take a breath and the reality hits me. “Did- did I almost die?”

“Not even close. Your suit protects your vitals and it stemmed the blood flow the moment you started bleeding.”

“I don’t want to break my promise.” A tear squeezes its way out of my eye and rolls down my cheek.

“I’m not going to let that happen.” She promises. “Just relax, alright? You’re going to be getting your adrenaline drop right about now. Emotions are going to be running high.”

“Right.” I just need to breathe. “What even happened?”

“I made a mistake.” Juno answers. I didn’t even know she was in the room. “I should have been there to cover you when we went zero g. The defenses I set up weren’t sufficient, gaps formed, and a ricochet got through. If I was in my Rhino I would have vaporized it, but that’s not an excuse. It won’t happen again.”

“It’s fine.” I glance down at my arm again. Exa has a small metal tube pressed up against my wound. God that’s a lot of blood.

“No, it’s not.” She says.

I glance over at Juno, she’s sitting on a chair, quickly wrapping up her leg.

“What happened?”

“Took a hit to the knee and a brace gave out. Think it’s broken.”

“You walked on that?”

“Had to.” She shrugs. “You get used to it.”

“I’ll reinforce the knee later.” I let my head drop back onto the table.

“Not until you’re healed you won’t. Two weeks to recover, and then we both start physical therapy. No work until we’re both in top form.”

“I can work with one hand.”

“You can supervise Exa. No more than that.”

“I can control Spidey with one hand using my phone, is that fine?” I ask.

“Sure.” She relents.

“Good.” She wouldn’t have been able to stop me anyway. “How bad is it?”

“Mine?” Juno asks. “I’ve had worse, and I’m not stupid enough to skimp on medical equipment. You’ve got it worse than me.”

“Really?” I glance at Exa once again. She’s wrapping my arm now.

“No.” Exa insists. “You’ve got a longer recovery, but less risk of long term complications. Muscles can be repaired, rebuilt, fixed. I’ve already reattached most of the severed fibers. A bone that heals improperly gets replaced.”

“Cybernetics are easy.” Juno says. “The first takes some getting used to, but after that it’s natural.”

“And what if my wound doesn’t heal?” I ask.

“Then you get to make the decision all pilots make eventually. How much do you like your organic parts?” She asks. “We could get an exoskeleton for your arm if you want to keep it, just replace the muscle with a piston, or replace the whole arm.”

“What did Dad pick?”

“And why would that matter?” Juno asks. “It's your arm, not his.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Exa responds before I can, “because you’ll heal fine.”

“You’re sure?”

“This isn’t the first bullet wound I’ve fixed.” She moves my arm into a sling, and loops one end over my head. “Do you want to keep this?” She holds up a deformed rifle bullet. It’s been twisted and flattened.

I reach out with my good arm and pinch it between my fingers.

“It’s cold.” Why is that the first thought that comes to my mind?

“I sanitized it.”

“Right.” I slowly turn it in my hand. “How did this thing even fit in my arm?”

“There’s more space than you’d expect.”

“Uh-huh.” This was just a ricochet too. It probably would have pierced all the way through if it didn’t hit something else first. I wonder if that would do more or less damage? It’s less energy transfer if it pierces through. “I think I want to make something out of this metal.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” Something practical. Something that could save my life in the future. “I’ll think about it.”

“Take your time.” She helps me into a sitting position. “Piece of advice, you’re going to want to sleep before the meds wear off. It’s going to hurt like a bitch when they do.”

“Alright.” I swing my legs over the edge of the table, and Exa helps me get down gently. I still can’t feel my arm, but that’s probably a good thing.

“If you need help, we have more meds.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Exa guides me out of the dropship and into the warehouse. How did I even miss the fact that we docked with the ship?

It’s a short walk up to my room, and I set the bullet on my desk, right in front of the picture of my parents.

“How many bullets did he take?”

“A few.” Exa reaches up to my shoulder and unclaps a hidden connection. The suit falls down, freeing my arm. “Let me get your other arm, it’ll be tough with just one.”

“Alright.”

She tugs on the sleeve, and I slip out. I kick off the bottoms and climb into bed.

“Sleep well, Kid. Here’s some meds for when you wake up.” She puts a few capsules on the table beside my bed.

“Don’t be too hard on Juno. It’s not her fault.”

“We’ll see.” She steps out and closes the door behind her.