Delta whimpered as its core burned, spikes of pain rippled through its body. It took it longer than it should’ve, to realize its core wasn’t still held within its mechanical form. Delta cracked its eyes open as the piercing light of an overhead fluorescent lamp flooded its vision. The abhorrent scent of death slapped its face as its sensitive senses finally awoke from their pod induced hibernation. Allowing its head to fall to the side, it looked over at a blurry row of cots that it now realized it was also resting upon.
Fear was the first thing to hit its brain as its clouded memories began to greet it. As it tried to scurry out of its potential prison, pain locked it's body in place as its weak organics failed it, just like it always had.
“Whoa, hold on there Delta.” A reassuring voice broke through its disoriented mind.
Snapping its head towards the voice, it tried to focus on the blurry figure beside it. It wasn’t restrained, so it wasn’t an enemy. It wasn’t its Handler since they always made sure to address each HOUND by their full designation. Abandoning the possibility it wasn’t the marines, Delta simply collapsed back on the cot, its energy depleted. It kept its eyes locked on the fuzzy figure, it might not be able to make out details, but eventually the collants' side effects would wear off.
“You don’t talk much do you?” The voice continued, almost apologetic in tone.
Delta shook its head as its long forgotten voice failed to come back. It had long ditched the use of such inefficient communication. Like all HOUNDS it preferred the emotional link they shared over the neural network, nothing could be confused, and all details came along as mere memories that they could share. After all, you can’t exactly talk when you’re submerged in coolant.
“Kinda makes it hard to chat doesn’t it?”
The idea sparked something deep within it, as if it remembered a time in which it had simply chatted, but the mystery morphed to pain before it shut it out completely. It simply nodded softly as it tried to not think about opening that mental door again.
“How do you feel?”
Delta frowned as it tried to reach up to touch its side, the sharp prod returning caused it to once again whimper.
“I’ll take that as a, could be better.” Earning a pained smile from the wounded pilot. “There it is~” He returned as Delta could hear the delight in his voice.
Blinking several times in quick succession it began to clear its vision. Scanning the room it began to get restless, as it couldn’t find the safety of its stronger half.
“Your…uh suit? Or mech? We managed to get it into the other room. Some of the guys found some tools and a forklift...Which by the way, thanks for not destroying that~” His merriness continued in its voice as it began to realize he might be trying to joke with it. “Don’t worry about it, we’re going to fix her right up.”
There was that term again, these marines didn’t talk like the techs. They kept calling it her, and they had shortened its designation, humanizing it. They were strange to say the least. Its mind, still a little stirred up, was reminded of the more important part of what he had last said. Propping itself up it began to fight through the gnawing pain, whimpering as it went. Desperation radiated inside its core as it needed to get back to its body.
Strong hands held it in place as it spoke. “Hey, hey, hey it’s ok! We can’t get a resupply drop yet, ships are on the other side of the planet, something about a rebel fleet driving them back.”
His words didn’t seem to comfort it at all as it never addressed the fact that they were messing with its body. Its Handlers would remind it that its, “mechanical form was perfection, its processor was to be molded.”
“Do you like being in that thing?”
Delta nodded vigorously as it absent mindedly picked up its hands, looking at its frail features in disgust. Pushing back up into his strong grasp, to once again return to its body, only earned more pity from the marine. In defeat the pilot could only look up at him with tears now clouding its vision.
“Hey its going to be ok alright, please…just…its going to be ok, we’ll get you back.” He began to coo as he soothingly rubbed Delta’s back.
This only let the damn break free as it suddenly realized that it had held back a lot, and couldn’t hold it anymore. This strange sensation of a caring touch was as foreign as its voice. It didn’t know how to feel about this act, it only knew it didn’t want it to stop.
“Listen I’m not sure what we can do about that liquid before a ressupply though, ok?” The marine pulled back as he used a thumb to clear away its tears. “So I’m not sure if you can use it till we get more coolant?” He asked, pausing for confirmation.
Delta tried its best not right, not wrong response with the limited range still held within the marines embrace.
“Cooling plus more, got it. They don’t have enough to fill you up like we found you. The damage you took punctured the tank, and we lost quite a bit getting you out.” The marine sheepishly admitted.
For the first time since it had awakened, it could finally make out the face of the marine it had been talking to this entire time. The LT from the dropship smiled warmly back at it, as it blinked to finish clearing its eyes of tears.
“Just rest, we’ll have the rest covered.” LT simply replied as he laid it back down onto the cot.
The warmth of his body left it cold in its interface suit. As he left earshot its heart skipped several heart beats as it began to realize something had always been missing. It needed human touch, almost as strong as its need for rewards.
