Sliyanye

Neo /Ori / Aiola / Ranya - Mech Pilots (pacific Rim style)

Annika - Ranya's pony sized dog

Dani - Aiola's Girlfriend (?)

Jamari - Neo's Boyfriend (!)

Ranya and Annika had ranged ahead. In moments like these, when the tension ran high and a pilot's heart raced, Ranya found a very particular kind of Zen, a state of mind unique to a battle.

Her Father had once called it  the pilot's minute. 

If you're in there, the past is no longer your concern. The future is no longer your concern either. 

With the naivety of the child she'd been, Ranya had asked what was to be her concern then, and her father, smoking a cigar in his old leather armchair, had looked at her with his wet, brown eyes and said, emotionless as ever;

The one minute. The pilot's minute. In a battle, that's all you get. One minute of everything, at once. And everything before, it's nothing. Everything after, nothing. Nothing in comparison with that one minute. 

Back then she hadn't understood, and there were days that she wished she didn't today. But during that minute, it was all there was. No doubts, no awkward talks, just do or die. 

When Ranya slid off Annika's back, she took a look over her shoulder. Their MAKs already stood lined up next to the Truck, the others were running towards them but would take another minute. There was still a moment left to say goodbye to her companion. 

Ranya meant to take hold of her head and place her forehead against Annika's, but her dog beat her to it. Wiping her face with the sleeves of her well worn camo jacket, Ranya grabbed the ladder in Okhotnik's leg and let the machinery drag her up the MAK at a stomach turning speed. This ladder could also be climbed the traditional way, but there wasn't a second to spare of the pilot's minute. Usually, if she needed to use it without the automatism, something had gone wrong or she just wanted to see if she could get up faster than uncle Ori. She always did, of course, but it wasn't like the old man was actually trying.

The ladder ejected her into the cockpit built into Okhotnik's head and Ranya used the momentum to more or less gracefully drop into her chair. 

As soon as her hands seized the Joysticks, Okhotnik snapped awake from standby. The light strips around the floor dimmed down, giving way to the HUD projected onto the glass cockpit shell. 

Sliyanye v desyati.

The others had reached their MAKs as well, some more out of breath, some less. There was an awkward hug between Aiola and Dani before they separated and Aiola started to ascend the crude metal steps welded to the outside of Wraith. Blyat. They really could have chosen a better timing. Or she could finally integrate an elevator of some sort, then they could at least use the approximately ten minutes it'll take her to get up there to figure it out.

Devyat.

The neuralink cables shot forth from the back of Ranya's seat and snaked their way under her jacket, attaching multiple icy contacts to the skin over her spine and sending a chill up her neck. 

Vosem.

To her left, Ori's dragonlike MAK stirred. Ranya wasn't exactly sure on the specifics behind its weird mechanics. It had always seemed eerily organic to her, but she sure was glad to have the chuvak by her side. She just wasn't aware when he'd woken up from his nap.

Sem.

The frosty sensation of metal on her spine faded away and took her sense of gravity with it. When it kicked back in, Ranya would weigh approximately a tousand solid tons of steel. All over her body, her skin slightly started tingling.

Shest.

Neo and Jamari shared a passionate kiss before Neo turned, but he didn't manage to slip away without Jamari giving his boyfriend's ass a satisfying whack. Ranya averted her eyes. Sometimes, seeing a lot wasn't a net positive.

Pyat.

Very consciously in- and exhaling one more time, Ranya let go of one of her Joysticks and let her numb hand wander up to her blindfold. In a second she would be free. No Saffron to judge her for standing up for Neo.

Chetyre.

Her blindfold came off, carelessly tossed down the ladder. With her eyesight unbound, Ranya let her sight sway over the city to her right. Even in the dark it was a beautiful place, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. She was grateful for the others taking her here. Now they just had to save the damn thing with all its stubborn dolboyob metas.

Tri.

Frontier and Wraith were starting up now, too. Ranya felt a tinge of unease at the sneaking realisation that they didn't actually manage to get any intel on what kind of Kaiju they were up against, but both Frontier's steadfast defense and Wraith's shredding offense would come in handy, she was sure of that. 

Dva.

In the back of her mind, Ranya experienced the familiar touch of something much bigger than her. the sensation enveloped her fully, and once again she felt like going under in a tank of viscous liquid. She was thankful, for the strange but welcome sensation blocked out the onset of the even more familiar headache.

Odin.

For a moment, there were two of them. The girl and the machine, back to back, separated from the rest of the world. Then, in an instant, the line between their minds blurred and dissipated as Ranya's consciousness became one with Okhotnik's core.

Sliyanye.

Okhotnik leaped forward, one step ahead of the rest of the troop. The city's alarm rang deafeningly loud in its auditory sensons, but it could see everything. 

The future was no more, neither was the past. Only the pilot's minute remained.