#RDOC

MATURE THEMES PRESENT!!! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING IF YOU DONT WANT TO SEE OR READ THESE MATURE THEMES LEAVE NOW!!!

Veronica’s Playlist https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfNHnSntLolbtBVqxXKAc6eBWMNkZ4sxF

General

Full Name: Veronica Blackwood

Nicknames: Vee, V, Matchstick

Age: 31

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Height: 5’11

Weight: 133.3 lbs

Sexual Preference: either

Birthday: January 10, 2037

Current residence: Cloudbreaker (custom ship)

Class: Engineer

Occupation: Freelance engineer

Weapons: A custom pistol and her prosthetic arm

Factions: None

Likes: She loves her work, spending time with her friends and tends to be more at home under the hood of whatever she’s working on rather than in some boardroom.

Dislikes: She hates working in an office, or any sort of restrictive environment like that, it annoys her when people barge in or interrupt her work, and it pisses her off slightly if they break one of her projects, fighting especially, only doing so if she absolutely needs too.

Preferred weapon: Her intellect, or her blaster. It depends who she needs to burry

Abilities/skills:

Quantitative Aptitude (Approved by staff)

Veronica is a genius, but this intelect is somewhat unique being she has something of a anomaly in the wiring of her brain. This anomaly means she is able to thoroughly and completely understand the basic and complex functions of any subject related to measuring the amount or number of a material usually estimated by spatial measurement. She have a knack for inventing the unthinkable; usually devices decades ahead of their time (See Cloudbreaker). She can often be improvisational when inventing, efficiently constructing what they need with existing resources in their surroundings.

So what this means basically is she has astounding reserves of problem solving ability, focusing on technology or mathematics, a physical form of tackling problems. Here’s an example:

You are standing at a security fence. You can hear the buzz of the electrical field and smell ozone. You can read any security signs, and examine the structure and mechanisms of the fence and all that happy jazz. With this information, you can compare the conditions to their existing knowledge of how electricity is transmitted. After sorting all this data, you can compare it to their goal of getting to the other side of the fence.

You then imagine several scenarios in a short span of time. Touching the fence will shock you (possibly to death). Cutting a wire could trigger another alarm, digging underneath would take too long and attract attention, and jumping over would be physically impossible.

Veronica insteadl performs all these functions with higher speed and efficiency, and her ability to envision the future goes farther. Technology is a powerful part of this ability because things like computers and high-powered sensors can give her even more data to process, as well as freeing up other functions to give them more energy to focus on prefrontal cortex activity.

This ability lets her create devices that aren’t dependent on their creator to maintain their function. Reverse-engineering and reproducing such devices may be possible in some cases, but likely difficult because of the logical and intuitive leaps taken by her to create them in the first place.

This is however offset by the conditions she’s in or under. For instance if she was in the middle of a fire fight she may take that extra five or ten seconds to think through something when normally it wouldn’t taken only three or five in a stable environment. Also depending on the resources around her can also determine the amount of time it takes to think through something. A raging fire in an old barn full of junk would take more time than if she was in a lab and surrounded by computers. Also suffering from PTSD and being placed on the autism spectrum is a main downside to this ability.

Gunplay:

Being in the weapons development business gave her access to training and use in several types of firearms, but normally she only keeps a pistol on her because anything else tends to slow her down in some way.

Pistols: 7.5/10

She’s best with her custom pistol but overall she’s more accurate and precise with pistols rather than rifles

Rifles: 5/10

She’s decent with a blaster rifle, able to hit her shots eighty-ish percent of the time but she doesn’t carry a rifle with her often as it tends to slow her down in some way or another.

Heavy weapons: 4/10

She knows how to use heavy weapons and how they work but she doesn’t use them enough to be as good with them as she is with rifles and whatnot, she’s better with the heavy weapons she designs and even then it’s kinda spotty.

Hand to hand: 5/10

She knows hand to hand and is fairly decent at it but she mostly does it as a workout now more than anything. She practices Krav Maga mostly from old videos and recordings she has.

Piloting 10/10

She’s a expert pilot, able to give the military dogs a run for their money since she’s been on the run from both the union and vanguard. She’s comfortable in a cockpit, just feeling the ship as she flies, relying on her instincts more so than any trained skill.

Maintenance and Engineering: 10/10

Her bread and butter, and her career she loves. She’s got an unnatural talent in the field of engineering as a whole, taking a small sense of pride with every successful project. It’s her ion and her pleasure so it shouldn’t surprise anyone this is a skill she’s refined it into a personal art form.

Hey! Im Veronica, it’s a pleasure!

appearance:

Hair color: Fire Red

Eye color: Deep Emerald but at first glance they can seem like a deep blue.

Hair type: Long but she usually keeps it in a ponytail with her bangs loose

Skin Tone: Caucasian

Hight description: She’s about average height for a human female

Weight description: She’s has a slim build with narrow shoulders and a tight gate

Facial description: She has a subtly oval face with high subtle cheek bones and a average sized nose. She had freckles from cheek to cheek.

Scars/Tattoos: She has faded but prevalent scarring on her lower half, back and abdomen. Skin grafts were used on her where they could be but they could only go so far with her. She has a full back tattoo which is also why she’s seldom without long sleeves or her jacket.

Cybernetics: She has a Cybernetic eye that has the basic vision filters (Night vision, up to 10x Zoom, and thermals) that she can use for about an hour at most. It has a lens on it to make it look like her other eye. Her left arm is Cybernetic that has the fingertips open up and reveal several tools for fine or small work and the hand opens up to make a custom arc welder It still needing to be hooked up properly she uses small argon tanks that attach directly to the modified forearm and the ground still needs to be connected. But having the welder itself built into her arm helps out quite a bit.

Weapons:

Armor/Clothing:

Casual Wear: She typically wears Jeans and a tank top or a tee-shirt with a maroon/crimson jacket. She also occasionally wears the same color scheme but with a button down shirt instead of layers. She has a shoulder holster for her blaster but doesn’t usually have it with her

Formal Wear

Family:

Grandmother(F): Veronica Blackwood

Grandfather(F): Jonathan Blackwood

Grandmother(M): Nora Williams

Grandfather(M): Marcus Williams

Mother: Margaret Williams

Father: Mark Blackwood

Brother: none

Sister: none

Spouse/partner: none

I’m not that bad, your just that stupid

Personality:

Veronica outwardly is a respectful, happy, witty and fun loving person with more than her fair share of quirks ranging from always wearing long sleeves to a mild claustrophobia hence her hard to work in offices. However, she’s also plagued by nightmares and the demons from her past. Suffering from a plethora of issues most prevalent PTS, survivor’s guilt, a mistrust of herself around others fearing that she would repeat the mistakes leading to her to where she is now. She has found ways to cope and use those demons to her advantage, talking to her hallucinations to keep her sanity. She avoids talking about them or any of her other scars unless it’s absolutely necessary. She also refuses to tell anyone how she lost her arm,referring it just to an accident at an old job . In stressful situations she’s short with people, but also level headed and often prefers to do things herself, going back to the trust issues she’s developed. To avoid this she lives alone on her ship, keeping away from most anyone unless she’s working. Since the war started she’s been on the run from both factions, hoping to not have to fight or use her talents for any more death than she’s already (believed she) caused.

History:

It was bright. That was the first thing she though as she had a lapse in her thoughts. Looking at the giant, flaming ball of gas made her shift to the side and squint before the windows polarized and darkened, letting her eyes relax and correct her posture. She was in the upper stratosphere, safe finally from the pursuing Union ships. Wanting to be sure she wasn’t tricked or seen she flicked on the reflector s and the sensor array to make her practically invisible. Letting her ship ’slowly’ drift she counted the seconds in her head, relaxing slightly as she put her hands on the top of her head she looked back toward the planet. Her heart still raced in that familiar adrenaline surge she was all to familiar with by now. She ship began to dive down toward the planet and that’s when she acted, holding the throttle firmly in one hand and the stick with the other she used gravity and the engines to start slingshotting her toward the ground, pulling up at around 40,000 feet she left twin contrails behind her. Cutting the engines now she let momentum and gravity carry the ship, only with the retro rockets being used to keep the ship relatively level. Looking at her elevation she counted under her breath before punching the engines full force and making her buck against the seat from the force. She winched slightly as the ground raced past her, No matter how many times she’d done this maneuver it still made her heart pound in fear, but always that same fear made her heart soar with each completion. She couldn’t help smile brightly and from ear to ear, slowing down as she neared a hopefully safe space in a forest. Well forest may have been the wrong word, it was a dead forest at the base of a mountain ran a hundred kilometers away from the union border. She was somewhat hemmed in, the dead trees on one side and the unforgiving looking rocks of the mountain on the other side. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was a calculated risk to have some hopeful form of sleep tonight, no matter how unlikely that was.

She rolled her chair back and stood up, stretching slightly as she rolled her neck and shoulders. Starting to feel the adrenaline surge wear off she began to shake. She pulled over a tablet and flicked it to life, the dull blues and blacks filling her vision as she began to look through and modify a design she’d been tinkering with. That was at least until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning to look she cracked a sideways smile at the figure, an old friend, long dead. “Hey you. Didn’t think i’d be seeing you anytime soon.” The figure smiled back and sat on the edge of the cot,

“What for you? You think i could wait that long? Then again, i’m not real am I?,” He put hs hand gently on her shin, tilting his head as he looked at her, “How’ve you been?”

“Good good. I have a hallucination of my ex boyfriend on my bed talking to me. Been on the run for the past four years, from both the Union and Vanguard mind you. Stealing my way through the world, rarely even selling anymore.” Her tone was blunt and heavy with sarcasm, then seeming to think of something she amended the earlier statement, “Scratch that, i sold a portable EMP to a few refugee’s a few days ago-” She nodded as she leaned back, her tablet resting on her lap- “That about does it for me though.”

“Really? Only that? I gotta say i expected more fr-”

“Don’t, you don’t get the right to say that to me. I did more, and it left you all dead, and me scarred. In more ways than one!” She cut him off firmly, looking away and raising a metal hand to rub her eyes. She...well she never really understood greif until the accident, then she understood greif, guilt, pain… Her own personal hell cooked up in her own mind, unable to let it go anymore no matter how hard she tried… She ‘felt’ him shift slightly looking at her, concern the only discernible emotion on his features,

“Vee...It’s not your fault. It was a crack in the housing. No one could’ve seen it. Or predicted it for that matter.” He tried to reassure her to no avail as she just shook her head. Visions of that day flashed through her mind. The smell, the horrifying light of the floor on fire, wires, lights, HVAC parts hung from the ceiling, the pain. The radiating and throbbing pain that made her cough and vomit whenever she even tried to move, the bloody stump of her left arm a sickly mix of black and red. Dust lingered in the air as the creeping silence of death surrounded her in something wholly terrifying and unnatural. She turned out the hallucination and curled up in the corner of her bed, trying to make herself small so maybe, just maybe her mind would stop driving a knife into wounds still for all intensive purposes fresh in her psyche. She needed professional help, serious help. But...that would mean she’d actually need to get close to someone, to let them in and...she honestly didn’t know if she could do that again. She looked up at him again, trying to speak but all that came out was a strained mix between a scream and sob before she covered her mouth. She didn’t even realize she was crying until she felt the cool, moist trails of tear tears on her hand. She hugged her knees to her chest with her other hand as she sat there, sobbing in the dark silently; After awhile she felt her hallucination wrap his arms around her and squeeze her. Initially she wiggled and resisted, the while yes it would help wouldn’t be welcome for nearly a minute until she felt her breath start to come easier, her heart still pounded in her chest making her shake as the blood pounded in her ear, pain throbbing and ever present, but her episode coming to an end.

“This is, this, this….this is, fuck...I cant….” She muttered to herself as she squeezed her eyes shut. She would never it it to anyone but these episodes of hers, these...attacks, were getting more and more common each night, and the hallucinations felt, well they were a manifestation of her damaged psyche and she couldn’t control them. It terrified her, her whole life she could control her mind, think through problems and find solutions faster, better that others, but one of her solutions didn’t help. It didn’t work, but it should’ve. It should’ve been a success! Everything was though through, every failsafe, every possible thing that could go wrong. They ran tests over and over, for days they sat around that damn thing and it never failed! But it did...maybe the inner casing cracked or a internal sensor was knocked loose when they were moving it to the display platform. But she checked it all herself, and then he did as well… Something went wrong and she hated she didn’t know, that she couldn’t have fixed it. Almost everyone had died who was on that floor, her parents, boyfriend, friends, everyone at the firm was there to celebrate their breakthrough. And then it wasn’t. She ran circles in her mind until she finally fell into an uneasy, nightmare filled sleep…

She woke up on the floor, blaket pulled off and tucked awkwardly under her so it laid across one leg and her midriff but nothing else. Looking around she didn’t even get up as she looked around the comforting, familiar walls of her ship, setting her head back down on the steel floor. The chill on her cheek making goosebumps race along her skin and cause her to shiver. She laid there for a few minutes, feeling the silence press down and around her before she finally got up, chasing it away as she moved, tossing the blacket back onto the bed in a heap she sat down in the pilot’s chair, looking around for any sign of the union bearing down on her position. Nothing, thank god. Her stomach growled slightly and she rummaged through a messenger bag next to the pilot’s seat, she made a mental note to get more food today. Her ration bars were getting staler than normal. And she only had about a week left of water or so. Unwrapping one of the bars she held it in her mouth as she tied her hair back, throwing on a clean tank top and skirt before sitting back down. She didn’t have time to think about that as just when she began to think about where they wouldn’t know her face, or have a large military presence when she heard her receiver start to wine and spit out static. Reaching over she took it and turned it over and popped off the outer casing. Pursing her lips to the side she opened up her ring finger and a small pair of pliers revealed themselves. Gripping the wire that had for some reason ‘fell’ out of it’s little niche she put it back in carefully before her index finger opened and she screwed in the small, well tiny screw that had been jostled out of it’s hole. Making a mental note to make or get a new headset she put it back together and set it on the throttle. As she got up to make one last pre flight check. Sure she knew every inch of her ship, it was her home after all, but still it never hurt anyone to make another check of things. God knows she learned that the hard way…. But...despite all that happened she really did love living in her ship. It was under some less than ideal circumstances sure, but it gave her a freedom she never really felt before, the sky was well for lack of a better word tranquil, almost serene when she wasn’t being chased by the factions....

Five Years Earlier: 13:00 hours Seattle, Washington

Veronica walked down the hall of the offices, an empty duffle bag slung over her shoulder. She still wore her typical red jacket although it still had soot stains and blackened patches on it. She had a few small bandages on her cheek, neck, and eyebrow, a shield over her right eye, and a metal hand shoved into her jacket pocket. Her hair was in a tangle and her remaining eye was dull, tired, broken even. She kept her gaze low and toward the ground, too many memories in this hall, in the building. Battlebots, rolly chair jousting, office parties, meeting, successes and failures. It all ran through her mind over and over in a endless loop of pain and guilt. Not many people had made it out of that explosion. Maybe fifteen at most, but that was fifteen out of a hundred or so, but...she could’ve happily given her life if it meant they all could’ve lived. Life didn’t work like that though. By now she could sum up all she’d learned about life in three words, ‘It goes on.’ She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t realize the other person walking until she bumped into them, “Oh...sorry about that, I should’ve….Uncle Lu?” She tilted her head as she saw the burly form of her old friend, good eye wide with surprise. He was a large man, 6’8 with a burly if not a bit heavy figure to match. He had a round and friendly face, a short well kept beard, slightly crooked nose and intelligent brown eyes that seemed to stare into the soul. He wasn’t actually her uncle, but he was family to her and close friends with her parents so that was all she needed to give him a nickname like uncle. And well...he made some bomb ass chilli. “Lu, what are, what, what are you doing here? I thought the firm had closed until we-they, fix the damage from…” She trailed off as she rubbed her shoulder awkwardly. Looking up at him as he put a hand on her shoulder, concern plastering his face.

“Vee, it was an accident. There was nothing you could’ve done, or any of us for that matter. It-”

“Don’t give me that! It was my design that failed! It was me who...who...I killed those people Lu...I-I still, I can still...I can, I can…” She started crying again silently as she wiped her eye and nose with her metal hand, it’s cool touch still foreign to her. She felt him move to wrap his arms around her gently, rubbing her back reassuringly, blinking back his own tears,

“It’s ok. You’re going to be fine, you always are.” He tried to reassure her, but he could feel her hug him tightly, clinging to him as if she’d fall if she’d let go. He didn’t know what to do, that is aside from stay and let her get out whatever she needed to get out. After a few minutes of her crying into her uncle, her tears began to stop, breathing heavily her grip loosened slightly, her ragged gasps became softer until they were just heavy breaths, letting go of him shakily she trembled as she wiped her eye again,

“Umm...sorry. I still, still get these, these...flashes..,” She blinked a few times, her heart catching in her throat and her chest got...cold. She still blamed herself for the accident. It was supposed to be a breakthrough. It worked perfectly for the first run through of testing and trials. For a year and a half it ed every test, but the day they brought it out to show it to everyone...it all went wrong. She got lost chasing her thoughts again making her shake her head to clear the cobwebs, “Sorry...what’s up?” She asked looking back up at Lu,

“The bag, I take it you’re cleaning out your things…?”

“Oh, yeah, umm I dunno I just.., I just can’t be here. Too much..everything.” She shrugged sadly as she gripped the strap of her duffle. A small sense of shame welled up inside her, a nagging worm telling her to stay and work through the pain, but the bigger voice..the one shouting and pounding into the fragile fragments of her psyche told her to leave and run. She of course chose the easiest and least painful path at the moment. That was to get up and run. Lu opened his mouth to protest, try to convince her otherwise but he thought for a moment,

“Well umm...I hope you won’t be gone too long. When you do come back though, I’ll have a fresh bowl of chili for you.” He smiled sadly as he looked at her, deep down in the dark corners of his mind and heart knowing this probably would be the last time he saw her. She smiled slightly back at him nodding, that same feeling throbbing inside her chest, tempted to correct him to ‘If she came back’ but she held herself back. She wanted at least some semblance of hope,

“Ill..,well I’ll keep you to that uncle Lu… I’ll keep you to that. Love you.” She gave her adopted uncle one last hug before she scooted by and continued down the hall, scarcely hearing the reply ‘Love you too, Vee…’ before rounding the corner and nearing her office. It wasn’t really an office, well it was, only she shared it with, well she shared it with her boyfriend actually, but he didn’t make it out of the accident either. Another soul to follow her around she mused as she set the bag down, opening it and heading to her side. She didn’t have a desk like the others at the firm, a few holo projectors and filing cabinets holding prototypes, data pads, and the like. Putting them into the duffle one after another, nearly finished when she saw a old datapad squirreled away in the corner of the room, next to a pile of old boxes on Andrew’s side of the room. Her curiosity peaked and she couldn’t help but wander over. Opening a few boxes she was initially confused. Inside were hundreds of small model ships. All of them had the same premise but were all slightly different in some way. Picking up the data pad she flicked it on and her eye went wide looking over the schematics. It was a ship! And not some typical ship for the military or commercial air traffic, this was a space worthy ship! Sure it wouldn’t last that long without a lot of modification, but it was still space worthy! The ships in the boxes were all past iterations of the design, tweaked and modified with each failure in the simulations. He must’ve been working on it for years! It was beautiful, if not a bit flawed, but...she wondered if she should take it. Finish what he was working on… She wrestled with the idea for a few minutes, then she decided to take the pad, a few models and a picture of the two of them together on a vacation. She looked back at the boxes. It seemed such a shame to leave behind so much work, but...she didn’t exactly know where to take them if she was to. Maybe her parents-well, her place now. It was signed over to her after they had died in the explosion as well, well her explosion. It was her reactor that had blown up, she had made it, tested it, checked it all over, but still it blew up. It still killed nearly everyone in the room and immediate surrounding. She set the models back down in their boxes and looked around, biting her lip partially as she looked for some way to take them. Poking her head out of the office she looked around, seeing a empty dolly she walked out and took it. Stacking the boxes on the dolly she zipped up her bag and slung it across her metal shoulder, grabbing the dolly and starting to head out, stopping to look around one last time as tears welled up in her eye she forced herself to turn off the lights.

After a long car ride to her parent’s home she set the boxes down as well as her duffle, looking around she just sat down on the couch in silence, looking at the floor. She didn’t cry, she didn’t shake, she didn’t feel anything, she was just...empty as she sat there, staring into nothingness. She didn’t exactly know when she fell asleep, but when she woke up the moon was high in the sky and the floating red digits of the clock flashed in a consistent, impeccable rhythm. She hated it. Rolling off the couch and onto the floor with a small grunt she pushed herself up and ran her fingers through her hair before tucking it back behind her ears. Pulling out one of the datapads she pulled up the blueprints on it. Scrolling through she eventually found the one she was looking for, a artificial eye first and foremost not one of the cheap bargain brand ones you can get from the insurance companies, this was going to be a custom job that could actually be used for something other than the basics because...well there was a small part of her that just wanted to be a bit over the top. She worked for hours on it, eventually setting the pad down and expanding the projection to a fist sized model for a easier visualization and modification. Once it was done, or as done as it could be she overwrote the original file and pulled out the other fifteen or so datapads and began to scroll through them. Needing something to do to ignore the throbbing pain that surrounded her. She tried not to look at the pictures in the hall, or the screensavers in the living room. It was all them, and it only brought up more memories and painful feelings she’d rather run from than face. She winced slightly as her metallic arm twitched and pain shot into her. Hissing a curse in finnish she gripped her arm tightly for a moment before relaxing and letting go. The thing she had now was clunky, cheap along the order of maybe a thousand or so dollars, and with a out of date shoulder mount it sputtered and sent sparks of pain into her. She looked through another of her biomed pads and began to swipe through it, finding a basis for a new arm she copied it over to another datapad. Pulling up a 1:1 holo of it she began to work on it much like she worked on the eye, taking hours and hours to work on making the ideal arm. Making custom parts and running countless simulations until she eventually decided something drastic. She would make it a full arm with a smaller mount and get the rest of her arm amputated at the auxiliary (armpit) and the mount put directly into her shoulder. It was...a bit extreme to say the least, she could’ve made a simpler arm keeping her current...position but she felt they had already botched the job enough with their slap job repair and she decided to just hit the reset button on that so to speak. The main problem she had now was how she’d get anyone to implant them. She could make them easily, but she couldn’t very well perform surgery on herself. She thought about that for a while until she winced as another shock went through her. Shaking her head she figured she’d figure that out when she got to it. In the meantime she needed to start making her eye and arm, but that was easy enough, her parents had kept a small workshop in the back, and she could modify the equipment there to serve her current needs. She had enough in her savings to get the bulk of the materials with the only problematic piece being the almost nanometers thin mesh to go around the eye socket and behind the shoulder mount to both act as a base for her nerves to graft naturally into for mounting, range of motion, tactile sensitivity, etc… and keep her bodily fluids from eroding the mount, eye, and to a degree the base of the arm.

The entire process took her around six to seven months, to build, tweak and run tests on both pieces of hardware before she even considered looking for a orthopedic and neurosurgeon to work on her, and that process also took months. By the end of a year or so she left recovery and headed back out into the world, a new arm and new eye ‘in hand’. She still didn’t like the feeling of staying in her parent’s place. The constant pressure she (most likely forced herself to feel) felt bearing down on her didn’t help her issues in the slightest. What she found helped though was having something to do, anything to keep her mind running and not give any leeway to let her mind wander into the dark, broken depths of her psyche. That was while in postOP and recovery she began to toy with the idea of finishing Andrew’s work and making that ship. It was big enough for her to live in and work in. if she started to work again, but then again she built a arc welder into her arm so deep down she knew she’d have to be working again. She raked her mind though where she’d get the raw materials to though. She’d used most of her saving for the arm and eye, now she had to figure out how to make a ship. She figured though that she’d cross that bridge when it came down to it, for now she needed to continue working on the plans first…

It was months of work, much like her prosthetics only now she was building something she had only worked with in general theory, it was odd, and a bit exiting. It made her hands shake with adrenaline and her blood pound in her ears. She had moved all the furniture to the edges of the living room and into the kitchen, several projectors anchored to the floor, wall, and ceiling created a 9:1 Model of the ship. From there she was able to work for hours, running through simulations and designs, it took her maybe one or two seconds longer than normal, but she was still technically in recovery so she choked it up to a damaged mind. Her ‘gift’ was odd to say the least. It was a difference in the way her brain was wired, it let her see copies of whatever she was looking at, it would take itself apart in front of her and rearrange itself, finding all the ways it could work and come together sort of a hallucination she could control to one degree or another. Or at least normally. While she worked she had...well her parents came to visit, her boyfriend, friends, all dead to be sure, they had died in the accident, and she’s been seeing them, talking to them since she got out of the hospital with her arm and eye. Before it was just flashes and nightmares of the accident, but now she was hallucinating the people who had died around her.... She guessed normal PTS patients didn’t have auditory and visual hallucinations so she did what she always did and kept it to herself, burying it deep down. And eventually they became less frequent the more she focused herself on her work, almost to the point she wasn’t eating or sleeping. It wasn’t until one day when Lu came around to check on the house he found her ed out on the floor. She had deep, dark bags under her eyes, her skin was pale and her hair was in a mess. There were a few scattered glasses. One on the side table half filled with water and another with some odd foggy yellowish liquid he guessed was some form of alcohol.

Walking over he bent down and put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently but backing away as she jumped rolling over awake with a start raising a metal hand to shield her face shaking before peaking over and visibly relaxing. As she panted slightly rolling onto her side and propping herself up on an elbow, “Oh...hey, umm-sorry… I didnt-sorry.” She said shaking her head and rubbing her eyes with her free hand, “What umm...What are you doing here?”

“Apparently getting you up and not in...whatever this is.” He said motioning to her in her entirety. Helping her to her feet he walked over to the glass of yellow liquid, “What in sam hell even is this?-” He took a quick whiff before recoiling as his face screwed into one of distaste and almost disgust, “-Smells like some...redneck pissed into lemon scotch.” He finished setting the glass back down, watching as she walked over and took it, drinking it before setting the glass down with a wince and sigh,

“No idea. It was dad’s attempt at becoming a brewmaster. It tastes like pure gasoline but it’s more like a energy drink. There’s bottles of it in the shed. Gives you a hangover like hell though…” She said shaking her head and finishing off the water glass as well while Lu looked ittedly aghast,

“Umm...ok no. No were not doing this, you’re not doing this to yourself come on. Get yourself cleaned up.” He took the glasses walking into the kitchen and setting them in the sink as she just stood there for a moment,

“What why-? Hey! I wasn’t done with that!” She turned to watch him, taking a step closer, “Lu-Hey, why? Where are we-”

“Out! Now get yourself presentable, you’re not going to starve yourself in here.” He cut her off as he walked back out looking down at her. She wanted to protest and tell him she didn’t want his help but..she would be lying if she said that, she hated that she needed someone, that she wasn’t in control of the situation. She started to shake as her mind started to spiral again, started to. She was pulled back from the brink of another episode when Lu shook her shoulder gently,

“Hey Vee, come on. Don’t go spacing out on me now.” He chuckled in spite of himself as he looked at her. Patting her shoulder he watched her carefully. He saw her shake slightly still, nodding slightly as she pulled away from him and heading down the hall holding her shoulder with one hand, walking into the bathroom she put her back against the door closing her eyes as tears started to roll down her cheeks as she bit her lips keeping her cries silent. This all...she hated this, she hated it all, she didn’t understand what happened, it was all right, she checked everything, ran all the tests personally and it still went, it all went wrong. She didn’t realized she had moved at all until she saw her metallic fist above the counter, her grief turned into some kind of warped and distraught rage as she beat the counter several times with the bottom of her fists, until her hands shook and she felt the blood throbbing in her natural hand and wiped away her tears with her shaking hands. Starting to run the sink she splashed her face with cold water several times, rubbing the left side of her face with her palm and bringing over the hand towel to dry off her face. Blinking a few times she looked at her reflection, a flash behind her for a moment of the hospital’s ICU making her flinch and turn her head away for a moment,

“Damn….” She muttered as she shook off the flash and went back to her ‘normal’ routine to get ready. Walking out a half hour or so later she rubbed her eye again with the heel of her palm, looking over at Lu again who was laying on the couch, one leg hanging off the side. Looking upside down at her before getting up,

“Hey Vee, you alright? You were in there for a-”

“Lu. Im fine, just...a bit slower than usual.” She cut him off gently, grabbing her shoulder. Shivering as she felt a phantom sensation as she did so. It still took a ton of acclimation to her new arm. It...well it was grafted into her nervous system directly so it was reason to assume she would get some feeling in some way.

”Yeah, and that’s why any of us are here. You’re TOTALLY fine.” The voice of her mother rang out in her head. Not even needing to look over at where the hallucination was to know she was smirking. Ignoring it for now she held her arms out for a moment looking around,

“Alright, Where are we goin’ then?” She asked dryly. Putting her hands in her jacket pockets, an oddly comfortable gesture and feeling.

“I was thinking that new sushi place that opened up by Pike’s Place-” He gave a odd sort of half shrug “-You need to eat though, you’ve lost weight and you’re looking like some natural goth you have dark circles under your eyes.” He said as he gestured with a hand to her.

“Ouch. Im hurt. You know you’re not supposed to say those things to a lady.” She smirked, scoffing slightly at his remark.

“A lady? You’re more of a man than me!” He barked out a laugh shaking his head as he headed toward the door, patting her shoulder on the way out, “I’ll go get the car started. Need anything else?” He asked turning back slightly and looking at her,

“Well, your not wrong. I don’t have a beer belly.” She chuckled looking around trying to think of any excuse she could think of to stay and not go, but she couldn’t find any reasonable one that didn’t sound like utter bullshit. “No..No Im-ready as I’ll ever be I guess..” Her tone dropped as she spoke looking back. Following him out the door and locking it again.

She talked with Lu for a while as they rode, Veronica doing her best to dance around the topic of her hallucinations, PTS or anything else that would’ve made him pity her. She hated it, she had to deal with it in the hospital her entire stay, from the reporters who covered the accident, and even to a degree Lu initially. She understood why they would all pity her, but she still hated it. It made her feel helpless and small. She needed help yes. She didn’t bother to spend the thousands of dollars on therapy or mental treatments. It would’ve been a waste, so she kept it all in and buried it deep down, her flashes, nightmares, visual, and auditory hallucinations until they became familiar and a part of her daily life. She did though tell him about her idea for finishing the ship Andrew had started deg. It took a bit of convincing but eventually he agreed it was a good idea, and that if she would even just consult on a few jobs for the firm, he’d do his best to pull the strings needed to get the materials for it. Construction was all on her though. It was a decent enough deal, she was hard pressed not to bounce up and down in her seat as she talked about it. The thought of actually bringing such a large and somewhat daunting task to make it herself she reckoned along the way she could hire and fire various workers as she’d need them. The whole process took about a year to do. Working day in and day out, sleeping maybe twice a week as she fed her almost crippling coffee and energy drink addiction to get it done as soon as possible. Working with Lu as was her deal whenever he called. It was actually less often than she thought, maybe once or twice a month for a few days. That meant most of her time (when not on a major crash) was spent building Cloudbreaker. She was lucky too, when she finished it the attack on New York happened. She watched it live once the attack was actually called an attack. Luckily she was on the west coast in a warehouse she has been building her ship. Knowing what would come next with the war she had to quickly weigh her options. She knew most of her firm would be recruited to the vanguard, but...she couldn’t imagine being a soulless drone meant to make things purely for killing she already killed enough people in the accident. Was it...Was it really right of her to devote more time to killing people. Sure she wouldn’t be the one directly doing the deed but...She couldn’t deal with that. She didn’t need anymore skeletons in her closet, she reckoned she had enough. So when her notice came she was drafted into the ESU she ignored it. Taking off in her ship and going on the run, it was hard at the start. Always looking over her shoulder and with minimal human . Then over the course of the next four years she managed to steal tech from Union and Vanguard bases, getting noted on both of their radars now. Not just as a draft dodger but also as a skilled thief and engineer, having to work on the fly to get her things and leave without being caught. Things got easier overtime. Especially with engine upgrades and the development of her scope patch equipment and optical reflector s on the ship she became invisible to all but the most advanced and upgraded sensors. And even then it seemed like a dubble of mild electrical static so it was easily dismissed. Soon she had become the nomadic engineering thief wanted by both Polity and the Union for her skill and compensation…

Flashback end

Veronica shook her head, chasing the shadows from her mind as she heard faint voices coming from her headset. Walking over and putting it on she listened to the underground railroad’s communication. Trying to pick up the next checkpoint in their most recent caravan. She figured out the location eventually and set up her headset. Taking off again she let the autopilot take her most of the way as she prepared a small care package for them. Portable, short rage ESDs ment to be a non lethal grenade if they encountered nanotech in union territory and a few single charge arc guns set to around the levels of electroconvulsive therapy machines for the soldiers who may get a bit too close. They would stun and cause seizures in the union soldiers but unless they had some other accident or convulsed too far one way, it was also non-lethal. Seeing the destination come up on the display she packaged the equipment up in a sealed shut steel box, loading it into an angled chute she took the ship low enough it wouldn’t cause any real damage on impact and released it. It wasn’t the first time she’d done this, helped out the refugees in some indirect way. She’d been doing this kind of stuff since she heard about the underground railroad about a year ago. She still was afraid for face to face with them being a wanted woman and all, but she still wanted to help people, and she thought this could, or rather is a good sort of compromise. That was also part of the reason she stole and scraped from the union and Polity, to help make this equipment for them. She never knew if they actually used her equipment, she could hope, but she never knew. Every box though had her own little emblem on it, and a short scrambled tone recording of everything inside it. She chose the alias Matchstick of all things to go by in these care packages. It was an odd choice but she felt it fit, to a degree at least. She sat back looking at the impact ping on the display as she pulled up and flew higher into the upper atmosphere. She wondered what to do next idly as she watched the clouds thin and disperse as she got above them and into the stratosphere she flipped on the O2 tanks and recyclers, the interior pressuring slightly to compensate for the height. Taking a deep breath she felt herself relax as she got higher up. The ground below nowhere in sight it was...peaceful. Serene even to the point she would’ve stayed up this high if it was physically possible. You could almost forget about the war, she could almost forget about her problems as well...but reality came crashing back around her as she shook off the tranquil feelings that washed over her and plotted a course for Seattle, Washington, home. Sentiment guiding her for the most part, but it was deep enough into Polity she hoped it would be one of the last places she’d be found out. For now anyway, ‘one day at a time’ she told herself, one day at a time...

Sources

Proto-Cloudbreaker

https://artstn.co/p/vWyzd Andrew Hodgson Senior Hard Surface Modeller at Industrial Light & Magic

—

Share via Artstation iOS App, Artstation :copyright: 2019

Cloudbreaker

https://artstn.co/p/NVl3D Alberto Petronio Concept Designer

—

Share via Artstation iOS App, Artstation :copyright: 2019

Custom Pistol

https://artstn.co/p/ExKo0 Gregory Trusov Freelance 3D artist

—

Share via Artstation iOS App, Artstation :copyright: 2019

Custom Rifle

https://peterku.deviantart.com/art/Nova-628817782

Artificial Arm

https://artstn.co/p/43zEq Adrian Marc Concept Artist & Designer

—

Share via Artstation iOS App, Artstation :copyright: 2019

Artificial Eye

https://pin.it/2bne5fffvnwbup

The Failed Reactor Reactor

https://artstn.co/p/NRDyg Orest Terremoto game 3d artist, freelancer

—

Share via Artstation iOS App, Artstation :copyright: 2019

Veronica’s ’Failsafe’ Gauntlet

https://pin.it/qhocjpdxuk6hy3

Full Back Tattoo

https://addpins.com/pin/stars/

Veronica’s Apperance

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/228043-npcspcsmonstersn-stuffart/?page=12

Childhood Home

https://pin.it/jc4m3i5esjxew4