Living in the Fray

Chapter 22

'It's been a while Captain Krieger, Vice Captain Ronson.'

Krieger and Ronson stepped in to the brutally clean and bright clinic where Michael had dropped them off not ten minutes earlier. The young man who greeted them was Lieutenant Decker of the EMA; a strange, spindly man who looked like he suffered from a constant case of the "I do not want to be here's." He was the guy the EMA sent out every time Krieger and Ronson had their court ordered tune ups. He was basically there to transport the "nanomachine updates" and witness that the clinic technicians and staff did everything correctly. Because if there was one thing the EMA didn't need was Krieger and Ronson suing them from hill to burn, again.

'Nice to see you again Decker, I guess.' Ronson muttered at the man who knew very well what he meant by that. Decker absolutely did not want to be there at all hence his demeanour but neither did Krieger or Ronson. The updates took forever and sometimes and more often than not; hurt like holy fuck. Or it could get pretty nasty. A few years ago during an update; Ronson seemed to have some sort of schizophrenic fit with a good chunk of roid rage thrown in for good measure. He nearly tore up half of the clinic and it ended up with Krieger, literally having to bang him on the head to stop him. Lieutenant Decker was present for that debacle and was now beginning to wonder, if he had pissed someone off early in his military career to warrant his being here every single year. Although the past few years of Krieger and Ronson's updates had gone out without any serious hitches.

'Okay if you wanna follow me.' Decker turned round and walked down the main hallway along to the clinics security checkpoint where another military man was stood at the scanner, looking all serious and stern. Krieger and Ronson went in to auto pilot, handing the stern looking man their weapons which he then stored away in a large lock box he was guarding. Krieger's face turned sour as soon as she handed over her guns and katana then started mumbling as she trudged through the body scanner. Like every other scanner she and Ronson walked through it started beeping like mad, signalling that the pair of them were of course, still heavily cybernetic.

Still on auto pilot, the duo wandered through in to a locker room specially designated for them to change in. Two hospital gowns in sealed bags had been left on a bench for them to wear. As usual, Krieger's gown was miles too big for her and Ronson's gown well, he just thought it was hideously vile. At least they were proper gowns this time and not the ones that tied up all weird at the back, leaving your arse on show. The one thing neither of them were wearing, were the flimsy, white towelling slippers they were given. Krieger and Ronson just stuck their boots back on, leaving the pathetic slippers on the bench.

Krieger and Ronson were then taken in to separate examination rooms to be given a thorough once over, by two independent doctors who weren't under the direct employ of the EMA. They were plugged in the whole time, with their readings being monitored and recorded during every single test; from reflexes to hearing, lung capacity to vision. Ronson passed with flying colours,
as all of his cybernetic and human parts were functioning correctly and his nanomachines were currently behaving normally, for the time being at least. Krieger on the other hand had been informed that her eyes would probably need replacing soon, as they were beginning to show signs of mechanical failure and the doctor had told her she was out of warranty on them by about four months.

'Fair enough, Leica eyes are fine an' all but I'm thinking about Zeiss ones next.' Krieger mused to the doctor. 'I assume they would be covered by the EMA seeing as I never gave permission to have these fucking things installed in the first place?'

The doctor confirmed it for her after having a look at her records. Indeed, maintenance and replacements for any cybernetic or mechanical parts that were installed in Krieger and Ronson by Doctor Bishop had to be covered by the EMA, all thanks to them winning their lawsuit. Of course there were some limitations and restrictions on what could be used, but thankfully; Zeiss were on the list of approved manufacturers. Krieger silently fist pumped at the thought of getting brand new, up to date, top of the line Carl Zeiss cybernetic eyes. She was then informed that they would make an appointment for her at the end of the check up and update, for her to come in and have new eyes installed. The recently released Zeiss Flawless Precision optics would make a very nice addition to Krieger's cybernetic arsenal.

After being prodded and poked for what seemed like an unnecessary amount of time, Krieger and Ronson were finally ushered in to another room where they would receive their neuralmod and nanomachine updates. They always requested to receive their updates in the same room together, their reason being if one of them went in to some weird roid rage after an update; the other would be forcibly brought round and would pretty much be the only one to stop the rampage going on.

'You get the all clear?' Krieger asked Ronson as they hoisted themselves on to the two hospital beds surrounded by beeping machines and equipment.

'Yeah I'm good. What about you?' Ronson asked.

'Need an eye upgrade.' Krieger pointed at her face. 'These are on their way out apparently.'

'New Zeiss?'

'New Zeiss.'

The duo attempted to get comfortable as they waited for yet more doctors to come and prod and poke at them. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long as two doctors waltzed in through the door, followed by two EMA soldiers carrying submachine guns. Of course they were there just in case anything went wrong. Krieger and Ronson instantly recognised the doctors. The EMA had been getting Doctors Farrell and Mackenzie to do their updates for the past few years now and flew them in from Galleria specially for the task. The doctors said their hellos as did Krieger and Ronson.

'Well there's no time like the present.' Doctor Farrell said. 'Let's get your neualmods updated first then we can move on to the nano machines.'

Krieger and Ronson laid back in to the hospital beds and let the doctors do their thing, namely secure them to the beds by their legs and arms with the thick leather straps and buckles reminiscent of restraints in a mental hospital. The gowns the duo were wearing provided easy access to to the various interface ports they had across their bodies; the main ones being in their arms. Krieger and Ronson's bodies were nearly all lightweight and durable metals and carbon fibre, but their skin was different.

Whilst Dr. Bishop was the one who screwed them both over along with their comrades in arms with his illegal experiments, he had somehow managed to pioneer a technique that could grow tissue, DNA matched to whoever it was for. This tissue could also be genetically modified to resist disease or even repair itself to some extent. This meant that people in need of organ transplants or skin grafts could have the specific tissue grown in a fraction of the time of other tissue growth systems.

Krieger and Ronson during their time under the "care" of Dr. Bishop, had most of their original skin removed and replaced with DNA matched synthetic skin which had been modified genetically and through the use of Dr. Bishops experimental nanomachines. It looked and felt like real skin and had the usual characteristics of skin like moles, freckles and other things but had the added benefit of being more durable against physical attacks from knives or even gunshots. The skins self-repair function boosted by their nanomachines worked excellently, when it did in fact work properly in the first place.

The doctors set about the various interface ports on Krieger and Ronson's bodies; plugging in cables and pushing in various concoctions through IV ports to be carried around their remaining fleshy parts. Both had a huge syringe of sedatives pushed in to them that would hopefully take effect after their standard neuralmod update was finished and before the main nanomachine update would take place. Krieger and Ronson turned their heads to look at each other before the doctors went ahead with the procedures and fitting the all important head restraints and bite plates.

'See you on the other side.' Ronson said to his friend.

'Big tea and beer in the pub later?' She replied with a question.

'As always.'

They both laid their heads back and let the doctors do their work.