Part 1 - A Routine Operation
The raid was going just as planned, the enemy mechs were in full retreat, and the remaining ground forces were no match for a lance of Arbalest M7A3 Jackhammers. Bernette almost felt bad for her quarry as she mercilessly gunned down tanks and infantry alike, their return fire barely registering on her damage control computer.
Bernette was torn from her revelry by a high priority alert: her targeting radar had picked up a single incoming bandit closing fast; she blinked in disbelief - what could a single mech do against a full lance?
Even though the lone mech stood no chance of winning, it could still inflict serious damage if not taken seriously. Following contact protocols, Bernette opened a team wide broadcast.
“Lance, this is L3 Grizzly - one bogey inbound closing fast. Anyone have a positive ID yet?”
The team sounded off efficiently, no one could get a positive ID on the enemy yet - their countermeasures were preventing anything but visual ID.
The lance reformed quickly into a practiced defensive formation, letting the remaining enemy ground forces retreat; the specter of a real threat taking the urgency out of their slaughter.
Bernette’s targeting computer lit up a positive ID on the bandit just before it entered effective weapons range, but before she could report it, L4 Polar’s panicked voice crackled over the team net:
“A-Augmented Operator! Enemy codename identified as the Black Knight!”
The Black Knight, Bernette wasn't familiar with the code name, but she knew full well that an Augmented Operator was a serious threat; still, L4 was out of line panicking so easily at a single inbound.
“get a hold of yourself, L4, even an Augmech can't handle the Ursa Claws! L1 what's our plan?”
L1 Sun responded, voice full of bravado:
“Ursa Claws, it's one mech; assault formation 3. L3 take point-”
L1 didn't get to finish her sentence, as a rocket struck the weak point in her Jackhammer's armor - a small gap between the torso and shoulder armor plates; her cockpit was perforated, and Bernette's HUD marker for Lance 1 blinked to red.
At once her other two lancemates filled the radio net with panicked disbelief,
“What the hell? It should have been outside effective range!”
“Fuck man, augmechs ain't human, what're we gonna do?”
terror gripped Bernette, but she knew every moment of hesitation would decrease their already meager chances of survival. She sprung into action, taking up L1s place as lead Operator.
“L3, L4, formation 3, now! Combat stimulants live!”
As she relayed the command, she flipped the cover back on her stimulant panel, and slammed the dispense button.
Combat stims were a dangerous last resort for regular pilots, but Bernette figured an Augmech encounter rated as such. She felt the chemicals hit her system all at once, as her senses sharpened to a monofilament edge; her reflexes enhanced to the limits of human performance.
Heart rate soaring, Bernette accelerated ahead of her lancemates, leaving them to provide suppressive fire while she went toe to toe with the monster that killed L1. L2 and L4 separated and attempted to pin The Black Knight with enfilading fire, to no effect - it was as if it was weaving through their fire patterns effortlessly. Bernette swore under her breath and opened fire with her autocannon; The Black Knight sidestepped the salvo gracefully, its augmented pilot reacting to the attack before Bernette had even pulled the trigger.
As Bernette closed to melee she attempted to bring her mech’s namesake to bear: A massive piston driven jackhammer capable of crushing through even the densest of mech battle plating. To her relief her blow struck home, but before she could inflict serious harm, a flash of bright blue light lit up her ocular HUD; her damage control systems began blaring loudly reporting the loss of her right arm from the elbow down, along with the jackhammer. Bernette had no time to react before The Black Knight rammed her aside, its sights set on removing L2 and L4 from the equation. the force of the impact momentarily stunned Bernette, and she shakily thumbed the dispense button on her stimulant panel; a warning popped up in her HUD that she was approaching dangerously close to overdose, but she dismissed it - risking an OD was nothing in compared to the demon she faced. As the chemical cocktail hit her system, fear and hesitation evaporated from her mind; her body, conversely, felt as terrible as her mind was now sharp; heartbeat hammering, her head was aching, she tasted blood in her mouth. It didn't matter. Bernette cranked the throttle on her Jackhammer's thrusters and followed after The Black Knight; in the brief moments she had been stunned, L2 had been cored by a rocket, and L4 had been crippled with pinpoint rail rounds. Bernette blinked in disbelief as L4 was finished off with a plasma blade - likely the same weapon that had separated her from her right arm so easily.
how the hell did a backwater colony like this afford an AugMech let alone one with this kind of weaponry?! Bernette thought to herself desperately; this had to have been a set-up, there was no other way; but who did the Ursa Claws anger?
Bernette had no more time to ponder this as the Black Knight turned to its last prey - three of the four members of the Ursa Claws reduced to scrap in that many minutes. Bernette engaged with her autocannon, her drug enhanced reflexes managing to score a few hits as the Black Knight bore down on her; narrowly dodging and mitigating return fire desperately, Bernette realized she was still too slow - she needed an edge.
Bernette knew there was a slim chance of surviving a third dose, let alone being resuscitated from the inevitable overdose; the calculus was simple though - die or probably die: She slammed the dispense button, overriding the warnings that lit up her systems. It was like the world was moving in slow, agonizing motion. Her heart hammered in a frenzied staccato, her head ablaze with unmitigated agony, her throat was raw - Bernette realized she was screaming. But she was able to hold her own! Her drug-enhanced aim forced The Black Knight to take a more evasive pattern, buying her critical time.
This must be how those augmented freaks feel all the time Bernette thought to herself; it was all too ephemeral: Concentrating was getting harder as her vision started to blur. Even as her body began to shut down, the stims kept her fighting - she couldn't afford to pass out though and she reached a trembling hand to the dispense button; when had her limbs become so heavy? Her finger had just depressed the button as a loud voice filled the cockpit: “Warning! Pilot cardiac failure! Beginning defibrillation! Warning! Pilo-”
A searing agony erupted in her chest, sharper than the already overwhelming roar of pain that suffused her body. The last sensation before the end was the taste of blood and vomit filling her mouth. There was no more.
Part 2 - Salvage
Consciousness returned to Bernette gradually, her mind drifting in and out of wakefulness. She didn't know where she was, she couldn't move, and there appeared to be a sheet draped over her, as if she was a corpse in a morgue. Bernette didn't believe in an afterlife, but her present situation was causing her to rapidly reevaluate; Panic began to grip her - had she died? Was this some sort of fucked up purgatory? She quickly took stock of the events leading up to this moment: she had been on a clean-sweep operation, crushing a rebel forward operating base and they had come under attack. The image of The Black Knight flashed through her mind, and the rest fell into place: an Augmech killed her team, everyone but her - she had managed that on her own.
Bernette knew she had died, she remembered it with terrifying clarity - cardiac arrest, drowning in her own blood and vomit, the agony of her body's final death throes. Mech pilots love to convince themselves that they'll go out in a heroic blaze of glory, and Bernette was no exception; the reality of dying was far worse, and she felt childish for believing she'd merit a death worthy of note.
Bernette's grim introspection was interrupted by the sound of a door whirring open, and an angry voice filling the room:
“Damn that augmech! We contracted her to capture the lance leader alive! Not to vaporize her fucking cockpit! And her handler thinks giving us the 2IC somehow makes things better?”
A second, more cautious voice piped up, in a tone that indicated she was attempting to mollify the other voice in the room.
“Respectfully, ma'am, L1 Sun went down nearly instantly. Her 2IC lasted a minute longer than analysis suggested was possible, making her a worthy substitute.”
The first voice scoffed loudly,
“You know PR wants a specific body-type for the team leader! this salvage is too…tall.”
They paused to sigh, then continued
“It’s not a total loss I guess; She’s suitable for the Calista program, PR wants at least one on the squad. Process her.”
“Yes ma’am, she’ll begin the procedures tomorrow”
The room went silent soon after. Bernette seethed inwardly - they had been set up! Her squad had been murdered and she should have been among them; it was a fluke she was even alive, if you could even call being salvage alive; it was a terrifying status, that varied in legality system to system: upon death you ceased being a person, companies could salvage your body and if they managed to resuscitate you, it didn't mean you got your personhood back - you were an asset. A piece of equipment; it was a fate that most hoped would never happen to them. Some mercenary companies even refused to operate in sectors that allowed for human salvage; The Ursa Claws were not one of them.
Bernette wanted to cry, to scream, to thrash - the indignity of her situation was overwhelming; she was the 2IC of an up and coming mercenary company! She had over a hundred successful sorties! All of that was nothing now -she was salvage, she didn’t even have the meager dignity of being allowed to stay dead.
Helplessly immobile and with nothing but the sheet to stare at, time dragged on agonizingly slow; the only thing breaking the monotony was the rhythmic sounds of monitoring equipment around her. After what could have been minutes or hours, Bernette had no way of telling, the door opened again and voices once again filled the room.
“Can you believe they want me to work on SALVAGE? Ugh. waste of my talents. Let's have a look at our new asset. Calpurnia, pull the sheet off, I’m going to run diagnostics''
“Yes Dia” a far more mechanical voice replied. Moments later the sheet over her body was pulled away, and a cybernetic woman looked down at her. The woman that Bernette assumed was Calpurnia met her gaze, and quickly looked away, as if she was ashamed of her part in Bernette’s captivity.
The awkward silence was broken by Dia as she finished up her diagnostics
“She’s stable enough to move. Make sure she’s unconscious, the compliance team is lurking around and I’m not getting another fucking fine. Make sure you give her enough anesthesia to ensure the next time she wakes up, it’ll be as W294.”
Bernette didn’t know what it meant to “wake up as W294” but she recognized an augmech serial when she heard one; they were going to make her into one of those lobotomized pet monsters that wiped out her squad. As Bernette spiraled into panic, a machine started to ping urgently;
“Dia, her cortisol levels are spiking, I will administer anxiety suppressants”
Cal turned away from Bernette’s line of sight, but her actions were quickly countermanded by Dia.
“No, you stupid bot, you’re going to do what I told you to do, and knock her out. She wont die from stress and I’m not wasting medication on a piece of equipment.”
“Yes Dia” Calpurnia replied quietly.
Bernette couldn’t feel her heartbeat, but if she could, she knew it would be hammering; the terror of the ominous unknown loomed over her and she couldn’t lift a finger to resist.
Calpurnia appeared in the corner of her vision again, with a face mask. She mouthed I'm Sorry, as she placed the mask over Bernette’s mouth, and opened a valve allowing the sleeping agent to fill her lungs. Bernette quickly began to fade, her last thoughts were of her team, the black knight, and finally, the hope that in becoming a monster herself, she might stand a chance at revenge.
W294 would have no memory of this.
EPILOGUE - Rebirth
W294 awoke in the lab of her birth, surly and resentful - for what reason, she wasn’t sure yet; She felt like she had something to prove - a vague memory of being the second choice, of being unwanted salvage, it was an odd thought, especially when she had only been born just a week prior; still, it was like grit in her eye - a persistent sting that left her simmering with latent anger.
W294 didn’t know a lot about the world, but she knew what she was - a weapon. Specifically, her internal data-banks designated W294 - the first commercial prototype of W293 “Calista”, a custom made operator for a wealthy buyer. Evidently, Anim-Aug liked the design and decided to put it into production. W294 also knew she was the first member of Alpha Team: Anim-Augs novel in-house team of augmented operators, designed to advertise and test prototype augmented operators.
With a gentle whoosh, the door to the lab opened, and a member of her handler team walked in, her Identify-Friend-or-Foe system identified them as a junior intern designated Connie Conrad. They nervously approached the terminal to the right of W294’s diagnostic bed and began typing.
Angry at being ignored, W294 emitted a deep threatening growl and Connie jumped;
“S-sorry 294! I’m j-just uploading your f-f-first mission dossier! Y-you must be eager to g-get out there and get your h-hands dirty!”
W294 rolled her eyes at the timidity of the intern - a real handler would have set her straight immediately - and settled into her diagnostic cradle for the data shunt.
Connie finished the transfer and fled the room while W294 was distracted; mentally thumbing through the dossier W294 began indexing the data into her mission processor:
It was an ambush operation, W294 was required to capture the lead pilot - the mission team had already set the trap, she just had to make sure the pilot was intact when the recovery team arrived; she felt like they were starting her insultingly slow, and it made her angrier. W294 distracted herself by reading the operation zone threat reports, specifically any other Augmechs that might throw a wrench in the works; none of the operators were within range of the target site, but one Augmech in particular caught her eye - The Black Knight, piloted by Codename: Basilisk. Something about the augmech stuck in her mind, like a tattered scrap of a memory trying to remind her of its relevance. W294 registered it in her IFF system with the rest and closed the dossier.
There was no way she had any history with The Black Knight, after all,
She was only born a week ago.
