Lodestone TLR-99

Spun from whole cloth

"A vacation? From a war?" Mehr had long since considered her remote-copilot position as a job, and not something to shape the destiny of her country, but even the idea of taking a vacation from it seemed too far-fetched for her. "I don't know how you expect to pull it off. You're the one with the reputation, Kath, everyone expects it to be you out there. The squads, the tank platoons... the enemy."

"You're acting like I should be enjoying being recognized out there," Kath said, stretching out on the single bed. "They all know who I am. Lodestone's hard to miss... literally." She massaged one of her forearms, still bruised a bit from the Howitzer impact that had temporarily knocked her out of alignment from her controls.

Mehr could only sit in the desk chair and observe the poor thing. Continuing to fight the war was important. The Coalition would run the risk of losing ground, and the troops morale would drop considerably, if their heroic Lodestone were not there to lead the charge. It was true that her darling Kath needed a break, but how would she manage it? It wasn't like she could just ask the Ops Lead.

"I can tell you're worrying. Don't. I've got a plan." Kath kipped up in the bed and reached for her locker door.

Mehr braced herself as Kath pulled it open, expecting a clattering avalanche of helmets, ration tins, and whatever else she'd crammed into it to keep the Inspector Sergeant off the scent. Nothing came out of the locker at all - save for one very Kath-sized body, that hit the floor with no noise at all.

"What do you think, darling?" she beamed. The body was a cotton-wool blend, roughly accurate in height and proportion to Kath's, and clad in her old marching fatigues. Her hair was stitched in a dirty blonde, and the skin in a darker tan; getting access to the brighter colors must have been difficult. The crocheted face bore a permanent winking expression, as if to mock the person who discovered it, and its one "opened" eye was a brass button, probably harvested from the Colonel's little laundromat accident the other week.

"I don't know how you found the time. ...Or the resources." Mehr could only stare in wonder at the yarn-spun dummy.

"The resources weren't hard. A few volunteer shifts doing tech work on the clothes dryers got me enough 'accidentally' shredded uniforms to rip up into raw fibers, and all that downtime sure went to good use, too. Almost screwed up and destroyed the Colonel's mess-dress, but that covered up well enough." The laugh that came out of her mouth was equal parts mischievous and genuinely happy, in a way that brought Mehr's guard down considerably. "To be fair with you, I had no idea he used dryer 23, I thought he hung his clothes on the line."

Mehr made a note of which dryer that was, to prevent any such accidents happening to her. "But what were you planning to do with a life-sized dummy? You know it's not going to fool anybody on staff."

"Stick it in the Lodestone, of course."

"You mean..."

"And you'll be the one controlling her, from that virtual cockpit downstairs. It'll be just like the simulator."

For a moment, Mehr was unsure whether to feel that this was utter betrayal, or uncompromising trust. Kath was her pilot. Kath was the one who always took the lead, took control. Mehr, the gunner and remote co-pilot, could assume full control of the Lodestone if there was ever a problem. If Kath were rendered unconscious, for example, which never happened. Mehr could sit easy, in her virtual cockpit, knowing that as long as she kept up the fire and kept her wits about her, both of them would be safe. Until now, Mehr felt it would never come to pass, that Kath was just that good that she'd never sustain enough of an injury that Mehr would need to take over for her.

One look at that bruise told her otherwise. Her dear beloved Kath, so bruised and vulnerable? Unthinkable until now. So maybe it wasn't that Kath was suddenly dumping the duty on Mehr's lap and vanishing. If Kath was not the one in the cockpit... Mehr realized that this meant there were now no consequences. Going on a fully remote sortie meant she no longer needed to protect the woman she loved. It could be just one big explosive joyride. And the enemy would still see the Lodestone on the horizon and collectively shit themselves, while their scanners would still see "Kath" inside. It was brilliant.

"Well, I'm in. I love it." Mehr reached down and lifted Ragdoll Kath off the ground, and couldn't help but give her a big ol' hug in the process, before carefully, lovingly placing her right back into the locker.

"Hey, if you're gonna get mushy, get mushy over here," Kath cackled, tapping her chest.